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Re: plant cuttings die without chelated iron?? ;-)
>Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 22:02:52 -0700
>From: Steve Pushak <teban at powersonic_bc.ca>
>Subject: plant cuttings die without chelated iron?? ;-)
>
>George wrote:
>> Oh, sure, not adding Dupla drops for a few weeks is VERY reasonable.
>> Let me run right home and start killing my plants.
>
>Now don't panic George! (note smiley, pls)
>
>Are you saying that you believe that many of your plants which have
>established root systems would die without any chelated iron additions
>for 2 weeks? Perhaps you could resume the iron sometime between the time
>the plants stop growing perceptibly and the time they turn to mush from
>lack of iron!
- Snip------
Steve, I just did your experiment! I just got back from a two week vacation
and I have not added any chelated iron (via PMDD). I follow most of the
Dupla principles as outlined by George. (i.e. laterite, etc, but no heating
cables yet.)
I've posted a couple of times in the past about the use of "Sunset
Hygro" as a canary plant to warn one of impending nutrient deficiencies.
The plant has a distint pink/redish color when growing conditions are good.
The plant grows relatively quick, so they slow problems before most of my
other plants.
Here what I've observed so far. The plants are not significantly different.
All the plants are growing at about same rate as they have had for the last two
years. The "Sunset Hygros" colors are vibrant (good). So my plants haven't
turned to mush yet. I've notice a increase of cyanobacteria (green spot algae)
on the anubius leaves which is consistent with not keeping the nitrates at
the proper level (as outlined in Sears and Conlins PMDD method.) Since my aquarium
has been stable for quite a while, I'd suspect I would have to wait a lot longer
than two weeks to see the results that Steve is looking for.
I did measure my iron levels before I left using a Hach IR-24 test kit.
(BTW a great & sufficiently accurate test kit, but expensive.) I'll retest
the water tonight and see if there's any changes.
---------------
Ron Wozniak Allentown PA, USA
rjwozniak at lucent_com
AGA member